Ringing the best of this year’s theatre from across Delhi is the six-day long Bhartendu Natya Utsav. Organised by Sahitya Kala Parishad, Department of Art, Culture and Languages, Government of Delhi, the festival will commence today at the Kamani Auditorium, Mandi House. Celebrated annually for over three decades, the fest aims to encourage and provide a platform to new and innovative trends in the performing arts.
This year’s edition will open with the play Seediyan directed by Arvind Singh, followed by Pratibha Singh’s directorial Ram Ki Shakti Pooja and more. “It is one of the most awaited festivals,” says Raj Kumar Anand, an organiser of Bhartendu Natya Utsav, adding, “All throughthe year, numerous plays take place in Delhi and this platform brings together the best six. Thus, giving theatre lovers a collection of selected plays, hand-picked by experts.” The popularity of the event is such that every year the seats are fully booked and the remaining crowd views the plays on a screen set up outside the auditorium.
Talking about the event, Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, says, “The festival is being celebrated for over three decades now and with all the support and talent we hope to continue for more decades to come. Our objective is to provide a platform to the upcoming talents in the field of Hindi theatre. I wish the best to each and every talent and may their flair be recognised worldwide.”
Drawing the lineup of the year’s six best plays used to begin right from January itself every year, going on till the end of December. “Till last year, we would appoint experts to watch plays throughout the year. By the end of the year, they would provide us a list of top 10 plays which would be followed by a discussion on which plays to be finally selected for the festival. However, this time we changed the selection process like the way NSD’s Bharat Rang Mahotsav does. We called in for applications and did an in-house screening,” says Anand, who feels that the previous method is more appropriate as justice can’t be done to a theatre play that is recorded. He points out how the lights and music change and also how recordings can be easily manipulated. “From next year, we are hoping to go back to the selection process that we followed earlier,” adds Anand.
From the 40 applications, 10 plays were shortlisted but only six will be screened at the festival and the remaining four will be soon screened at the District Cultural Center, Janakpuri.
December 9-14, 6:30pm (Till December 12 at Kamani Auditorium; and till December 14 – LTG Auditorium)